WhatsApp Is Releasing Its Own Payment Service. Here's Your First Look At The New Feature
Say hello to WhatsApp Payments.
By John Lim — 12 Feb 2018, 06:20 PM
Following the footsteps of WeChat and Alibaba, WhatsApp has finally started testing its very own digital payment service
The Facebook-owned company has been working on the service since early 2017.
WhatsApp Payments has been launched in beta in India, one of its most important markets with over 200 million daily active users
WhatsApp has a huge user base in India.
According to The Indian Express, WhatsApp has about 1.5 billion monthly active users globally, out of which 200 million are in India.
“WhatsApp have a huge user base in India. Since so many Indians use WhatsApp all the time, adding a payment function makes a lot of sense," angel investor Aniruddha Malpani told Forbes.
The company has partnered with major banks in India to allow money transfers between users
To use the feature, Users must first configure it by verifying their phone number via SMS. They can then choose a bank and transfer money through the main WhatsApp interface.
WhatsApp Payments currently only allows people to send money to each other. Merchant accounts are excluded from the launch.
WhatsApp hasn't announced any plans for the feature, but we're expecting to see a global rollout in the near future
After all, WhatsApp is a few years late to the digital payments game, so they better hustle!